The Nine Sons of the Dragon
The
dragon, one of the totems of ancient China, symbolizes good fortune
in Chinese culture and folklore. According to legend the dragon
has the head of a bull, the horns of a deer, the eyes of a lobster,
the body of a snake, the claws of a hawk and the tail of a lion
... surely a creature that only lives in the imagination.
According
to Chinese folklore the dragon has nine sons. Each has its own assigned
duty with its own likes and dislikes. Because of these assigned
duties they were often used to decorate the eaves, ridges, balustrades
and terrace bases of ancient Chinese buildings, vessels and weapons.
The names and habits of the dragon's nine sons vary between different
records of the period, but the real question is: "Did the ancient
Chinese people give the nine sons of the dragon different characters
according to their decorative uses or give them different decorative
uses according to their names?" When walking through the Imperial
Palace one of our objectives was to locate and identify as many
of the Nine Sons of the Dragon as we could. We managed to find only
four.
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